Lonely Here

[Bobby Bass]

Pretty lonely here on the open water forum. Everyone seems to have all there posts over on the hard water. Nothing left for us here but to talk about cleaning reels and painting boats. You can see a few of us wandering the isles of Gander looking at surface plugs and spinner baits. Lots of room in them isles this time of year. Same with elbow space at the counters looking into display cases at baitcasters and checking out long rods. Only middle of December and we have months to go still.

[HaywardBound]

Yea, I miss summer. Now I regret that I didn't fish more in July because it was too hot.

[IFallsRon]

I've been eyeballing an old fiberglass tri-hull at the Salvation Army for a winter project. I'm betting it's a make-an-offer deal.

[gunflint]

Too hot to fish? I've never heard that before. Only about 150 days to go for those of us that know water is for boats, not for walking on.

I take a mandatory break from fishing, reading about fishing, studying about fishing etc, from first ice until after the holidays. But then it's game on baby.

[PierBridge]

Any snow left up your way Gunflint?

[The Grebe]

Heck, nows the time to start planning, (Between ice fishing trips of course ) going through the tackle boxes to see what is, or isn't needed and maybe making a donation of equipment to a worthy cause, or a worthy person. Tackle, rods, reels, things you have but never use.

There are 10,000 lakes out there and it's time consuming to research and make plans for fishing them...something that can be done now, (Between ice fishing trips, of course ) while waiting for open water!

Deals! Nows the time for deals! Closeouts and discontinued items, (Lots of ice fishing stuff to! )FleetFarm, Gander, Cabalas, JR's and any number of other outlets....you can find some stuff!

There are magazines, books, television programs that are interesting, informative and just down right intertaining, (Some are even on ice fishing! ) a person doesn't have to wait longingly for the open water, they can do all kinds of things to pump themselves up and work into it and be cocked, locked and ready to rock at the opening bell, with a whole boat load of fresh enthusiasm! And a freezer bag of crappie fillets from the winters ice fishing to tide you over!

[gunflint]

We've still got 3 to 4 inches in the woods but Grand Marais is brown.

[BigWadeS]

Well if it stays like this and I know it's a big if, but it might not be so long before we can get those boats back on the water....I know I certainly would love to back it in and take off for some open water fishing...

[porterhouse]

I'm also one of those anglers that don't hard water fish. Can't trust the ice!!!!!

In the off season I re study my lake maps and research new lakes that I want to hit next year. Clean and repair broken down reels, read books, watch some T.V, and do some house repairs before spring gets here.

When Febuary gets here I get the itch for open water and when March gets here I hit the rivers for some action. It's mid December and it's mid 40's outside. alot of stuff to do outside right now.

Happy Holidays,

Brian

[delmuts]

i'm kind of lucky down here. the rivers are open, so i still get my fix. some of the guys are running boats on the miss. most of the action is for walleye, with a few crappie and northern thrown in.

plus the sorting lures and sharpening hooks. the reels will be attended to soon!

[Bassboy1645]

I fish hard on open water or hardwater dont matter.....Between Febuary when walleye closes and may when it opens is my work months....i fix trailer lights, replace or fix broken stuff and maybe even take up a project.....last winter i remodeled my boat only to geta good deal on a bigger one form my parents last summer..... of course i do all this between spring trout fishing too which is nothing more than a way to get the fishing itch out of my sytem

[Down Deep]

Ice fishing is skills training for inactivity. LOL

But, I sure do a lot of it.